Logo: to the web site of Uppsala University

Throughout the postclassical period (c. 650/1250 to 1300/1900) commentaries on earlier texts dominated the literary output of Muslim theologians. Scholars have debated whether these commentaries were repetitive and unoriginal, symptomatic of stagnant traditionalism, or whether they often made profound contributions to ongoing theological conversations. This study extends these debates by exploring the potential significance of the commentarial format for constructive Islamic theology within the academic field of systematic theology. It suggests that commentaries may still contribute to dialogue between past and present theologians, but that this would require a considerable renewal of their usual forms and functions as well as a greater hermeneutic awareness of theology as an ongoing interpretative process taking place within particular traditions. 

The study draws on Alasdair MacIntyre’s concept of traditions as historically extended arguments in which certain agreements are defined and redefined in terms of both internal and external conflicts. This concept contributes both to the analysis of commentarial literature, which arguably exemplifies it more than any other format, and to understanding the study of Islamic theology as taking place within different, albeit overlapping, traditions. 

The first part of the study (Chs. 1–3) outlines MacIntyre’s concept in relation to Islamic theology, examines Islamic commentarial practices until today and introduces the material explored in the second part: the manuals and commentaries of the North African Ashʿarī theologian Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī (d. 895/1490). The second part (Chs. 4–6) consists of a threefold commentary on al-Sanūsī’s most famous manual, al-ʿAqīdat al-ṣughrā, focusing on meta-ethics, natural theology and prophetology. Each chapter contains its own theological inquiries and arguments, critically engaging the Ashʿarī tradition to which al-Sanūsī belonged. Taken together they provide a case for the enduring relevance of commentaries and an example of how the format may be renewed today. The study as a whole contributes to the ongoing discussion about critical and constructive approaches to Islamic theology – within systematic theology and philosophy of religion – going beyond the exclusively historical approach that still dominates contemporary Islamic studies.